g and shrieking, and seeking still to gain his lordship's ear,
I was hustled along the passage to the courtyard, and there dragged amid
jeers and laughter to the fountain, and brutally flung in. When I
scrambled out, they thrust me back again and again: until, almost dead
with cold and rage, I was at last permitted to escape, only to be hunted
round the yard with stirrup-leathers that cut like knives, and drew a
scream at every stroke. I doubled like a hare; more than once I knocked
half a dozen down; but I was fast growing exhausted, when some one more
prudent or less cruel than his fellows, opened the gates before me, and
I darted into the street.

I was sobbing with rage and pain, dripping, ragged, and barefoot; for
some saving rogue had prudently drawn off my shoes in the scuffle. It
was a wonder that I was not fallen upon and chased through the streets.
Fortunately in the street opposite my lord's gates opened the mouth of a
little alley. I plunged into it, and in the first dark corner dropped
exhausted and lay sobbing and weeping on a heap of refuse. I who had
risen so happily a few hours before! I who had climbed so high! I who
had a wife new-married in my garret at home!

I do not know how long I lay there, now cursing the jealousy of the
clerks, who would have flayed me to save themselves, and now the cruelty
of the grooms who thought it fine sport to whip a scholar. But the first
tempest of passion had spent itself, when a woman--not the first whom my
plight had attracted, but the others had merely shrugged their shoulders
and passed on--paused before me. "What a white skin!" she cried, making
great eyes at me; and they had cut my clothes so that I was half bare to
her. And then, "You are not a street-prowler. How come you here, my lad,
in that guise?"

I was silent, and pretended to be sullen, being ashamed to meet her
gaze.

She stood a moment staring at me curiously. Then, "Better go home," she
said, shaking her head sedately, "or those who have robbed you may end
by worse. I doubt not this is what comes of raking and night-work. Go
home, my lad," she repeated, and went on her way.

Home! The word raised new thoughts, new hopes, new passions. I scrambled
to my feet. I had a home--the Bishop might deprive me of it: but I had
also a wife, from whom God only could separate me. I felt a sudden fire
run through me at the thought of her, and of all I had suffered since I
left her arms: and with new boldness